A National Labor Relations Board judge in August will hear allegations by Los Angeles and Long Beach port truck drivers and their supporters that a Rancho Dominguez trucking firm committed more than 50 labor law violations.

On Aug. 1 a judge is expected to hear a consolidated complaint issued by the Region 21 of the NLRB and filed by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters on behalf of the truckers against Green Fleet Systems, which operates a fleet that moves cargo containers from the twin ports to major retailers such as Target, Wal-Mart and Sketchers.

The complaint alleges about 50 violations made by the company, including:

• Managers telling employees that the plant would be shuttered and jobs would be lost if they participate in union-related events at customer locations;

• A manager taking pictures and involved in surveillance of employees engaged in union-related activities;

* Employees being instructed to “harass employees that supported the union, and to provoke those employees into engaging in physical altercations so that those employees could be terminated,” and

* A supervisor asking employees to sign an “anti-union petition.”

“Green Fleet is a recidivist employer that has been undaunted in its efforts to circumvent the National Labor Relations Act, including flagrantly violating a prior NLRB settlement agreement and callously waging a campaign of hallmark unfair labor practices designed to nip in the bud and destroy the Union’s organizing drive,” said Julie Gutman Dickinson, an attorney representing the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Port Division and drivers Mateo Mares and Amilcar Cardona, both of whom claimed that they were fired from the jobs at Green Fleet because of their union support.

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Thomas Lenz, an attorney representing Green Fleet, said in a statement that Green Fleet disputes the NLRB’s allegations that it engaged in any wrongful act toward drivers and added that the company has complied with the National Labor Relations Act.

“The facts are that a majority of Green Fleet’s employee drivers do not support the Teamsters Union,” Lenz said.

Lenz said the union and NLRB “have essentially ignored Green Fleet’s evidence that the Union has engaged in heavy-handed misconduct, including threats and demands at drivers’ homes and unlawful picketing at Green Fleet and elsewhere.”

He added that independent owner-operator drivers, who make up a minority of the drivers providing services for Green Fleet, are not considered employees under the law and therefore not protected by federal labor law or entitled to unionize.

“The owner-operators have signed independent contractor agreements which lawfully govern their relationship with Green Fleet,” he said. “The Teamsters and the NLRB don’t like it. That’s what this is all about.”

Truckers and supporters said the fight is about working conditions, fair wages and the right to representation. They say the trucking companies have been able to use the job classification of independent workers to pay truckers who haul cargo in and out of the ports less and deny them protections that employees get under state and federal laws.

“Green Fleet is spending millions on union busters and actually recruits other drivers to harass us and provoke us to fight just to silence us, but we have stayed strong and united in fighting for our rights,” Green Fleet driver Yasser Castillo said.

Contact Karen Robes Meeks at 562-714-2088.

About the Author

Newspaper reporter with more than a decade of experience in journalism. I cover trade and transportation. Reach the author at karen.robes@langnews.com
or follow Karen on Twitter: karenmeekspt.